Skalterra by Nightmare

The Skalterra Duology, Book 1

By: M.T. Zimny

Narrated by: Elizabeth Phillips

Wren Warrender wants nothing more than to get off the waitlist at her dream school and survive the summer with an insufferable new coworker, so when a group of Magicians drag her sleeping consciousness into a magical realm called Skalterra to act as their weapon each night, she’s less than thrilled. An old evil is breaking free of his glacial prison, and now it’s up to Wren to keep him from unleashing chaos across two separate realities. The lines between waking and sleep start to blur, and Wren is forced to reckon with the fact that some bad dreams are more than Nightmares.

©2025 M.T. Zimny (P)2025 M.T. Zimny

Zimny’s Best work yet

Zimny has come into her own as a YA author with this creative steam punk portal fantasy. The main heroine, Wren is original with unique struggles and personality. The world and magic system is imaginative and immersive. And the plot twists and pacing will keep you strapped in on this “steam cart” until the end.

great story with unexpected details and twists.

I really like how the author writes characters that are her own and not trendy copies of other works. Her stories are original and her characters are real. very enjoyable and I can't wait for the next book!

Obsessed is an Understatement

Another amazing team up of the amazing MT Zimny and Elizabeth Phillips. I adore how MT Zimny writes such wonderful characters, who are so relatable, while also keeping me on my toes and the edge of my seat for the entire read. I was desperately awaiting this audio release, the way Elizabeth Phillips helps bring all the characters to life is just amazing, I don’t speed her up the way I do most other audiobooks. She always manages to tell the story in such a way that highlights words, phrases, moments that add new layers of meaning and understanding that how I read the book in my head. The entire world that MT Zimny created in Skaltera is more beautifully seen in my mind when told to me by Elizabeth Phillips.

One Heck of a journey.

When looking for this book I was hoping for something epic. And I did get that and a little bit of something else. First off, I just wanna say, I CALLED IT! No spoilers in this review but I needed to say that.
Anyway, this book is YA but dang, isn’t it gruesome. And it had a lot of selective words I wasn’t expecting (lol). As cool as Skalterra sounded it also is terrifying. But overall the ending was super cool. Excited to see where the story will end because this was awesome.